No X Video on Built-in Monitor of Dell Inspiron 1100

[Larry Reid]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

On 9.04, about half the time, when cold starting or waking from suspend, I can't get the X output on the built-in monitor of my laptop. Sometimes, Ctrl-Alt-F1 and then Ctrl-Alt-F7 gets the X video to work. Sometimes Ctrl-Alf-F1 gets character video but Ctrl-Alt-F7 doesn't get X video. Sometimes the computer is completely frozen and I have to turn it off. (Note the "LVDS unknown connection" in the output from xrandr below.)

On 9.10 alpha 3, it's worse. Sometimes I get as far as a GDM login and enter my credentials and it will display the Ubuntu wallpaper but go no farther, and Ctrl-Alt-Fn no longer works. Sometimes I don't get any X display at all. Either way the computer is completely frozen. The Ctrl-Alt-F7 trick doesn't work.

I'm attaching Xorg.0.log from 9.04.

lspci -nn | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device [8086:2562] (rev 03)

xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 1024
VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS unknown connection 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768 60.0*+ 60.0
   800x600 60.3
   640x480 59.9

Here's the xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Let me know what else you need.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.6.3-0ubuntu9.3
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersion: Linux version 2.6.28-14-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.3.3 (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) ) #47-Ubuntu SMP Sat Jul 25 00:28:35 UTC 2009
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-14-generic i686

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

We would really like the logs from Karmic. I realize that with the symptoms you describe it would be hard to file the bug when using Karmic. I see you were able to get Xorg.0.log using Karmic alpha-3 at bug 316081: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/29931273/Xorg.0.log . Are you able to ssh in to the computer when it hangs?

[Larry Reid (lcreid)]

Here's the Xorg.0.log from Karmic. Note that on this occasion, Karmic didn't freeze up completely, so I was able to hit Ctrl-Alt-F1. I didn't have any video, but I was able to log in and do sudo shutdown -r now without any video.

(I'm running both 9.04 and 9.10 on the same Inspiron 1100 in a dual-boot configuration.)

I'll try to get the other log information for Karmic. I'm going to try an external monitor and see if I can get to X.

[Larry Reid (lcreid)]

Trying to boot 9.10 with an external monitor, I got the Ubuntu splash and the progress bar moved maybe 10 % of the way and then it locked up completely. The Xorg.0.log wasn't touched -- it had the same mod date as the file I posted in the previous comment.

[Larry Reid (lcreid)]

I booted 9.10 without the boot splash and got as far as a GDM login screen. I entered my credentials and I got the default desktop wallpaper with a spinning mouse pointer, then it froze. In fact, I was half-way through typing something in a ssh session that I had into the 9.10 system and that froze as I was typing.

Here is the Xorg.0.log and I'll also post the ~/.xsession-errors.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

When you ssh'd in and the connection froze, was the Karmic PC connected via wireless or cable? In ubuntu the wireless connection is managed through the user's xorg-session, and if xorg dies, it may take the connection with it. If it was connected via a cable it is a sign that something goes wrong on a deeper level than xorg, e.g. in an xorg-related kernel module. If you manage to write a command over ssh before it freezes `dmesg >dmesg.txt` could be a good choice.

When it hangs, is there a mouse pointer still? If so, does it move at all when you move the mouse? Does the CapsLock button turn the corresponding keyboard LED on and off?

[Larry Reid (lcreid)]

The Dell with 9.10 is connecting through a wire. There is a wireless card in the box, but since I've never got to Network Manager to set the wireless password, I've been using eth0 through a wire.

I will attach two dmesg outputs shortly. The first one is when the Dell was sitting with the GDM login screen. The second is after attempting a login and getting to the wallpaper. At that point, I'm looking at the wallpaper with nothing else (no panels, icons, etc.) and the standard arrow shaped mouse pointer, which I can move by touching the trackpad. The caps lock key doesn't seem to change the state of the LED.

Now for some more strange behaviour: I had the Dell at the GDM login screen, but then had to do some work for a paying customer. When I came back to the Dell, it had turned off the display (screen saver?). I couldn't get the display to come back on. However, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace seemed to be restarting X, as I could hear a "thunk" sound shortly after Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

So I thought, "Perhaps it thinks it's supposed to send output to an external monitor. I plugged the monitor cable into the Dell and the external monitor didn't light up, but the Dell's built-in screen did! (Still just the wallpaper with a working mouse pointer.) The "dmesg-postlogin-2.txt" shows dmesg after that one, and Xorg.0.log-2 is also after plugging in the external monitor.

Further strange behaviour: While the Dell is sitting with X showing the wallpaper and mouse pointer, I have an ssh session open from a healthy machine. If I type in the ssh terminal, nothing happens until I move the mouse pointer on the Dell. Then whatever I typed appears, along with any output if I pressed return.

I'm currently running ubuntu-bug on the Dell from the ssh session. It's rather humorous to see the progress dots not appear until I move the mouse pointer on the Dell.

I'll upload the files later this evening. Sorry I can't do it right now.

By the way, I'm running version A32 of the BIOS on the Dell. Many people report problems with Ubuntu on the Inspiron 1100 if you have older BIOSes.

[Larry Reid (lcreid)]

I let ubuntu-bug run in the ssh session for about two hours, but it didn't finish. Is there a way to get the output of ubuntu-bug without a GUI running? Where does it put the output? Would that output be useful to you (ubuntu-bug while the Dell is in the X-up-but-useless state)?

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

> Further strange behaviour: While the Dell is sitting with X showing the
> wallpaper and mouse pointer, I have an ssh session open from a healthy
> machine. If I type in the ssh terminal, nothing happens until I move the
> mouse pointer on the Dell. Then whatever I typed appears, along with any
> output if I pressed return.

This is indeed strange behaviour. So strange actually, that I remember
having seen it in another bug report recently. The other report is bug
406460. This is also for the 845G chipset and has been troubleshot a
bit further. It has also been reported upstream at
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23032 .

I suspect bug 406460 covers the main issue that you are experiencing,
but that you may have additional bugs as well. I suggest that you mark
this bug report as a duplicate of bug 406460 for the time being and
follow that and the upstream bug report. You may then test the
suggested fixes for that bug and see if they also help for you. Then
we can deal with what is remaining. If the symptoms change when the
fix for bug 406460 is applied, you should file a new bug report
(again) so that we get a bug report with updated symptoms and logs and
with any trace of the fixed problem gone. Sounds okay?

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

> I let ubuntu-bug run in the ssh session for about two hours, but it
> didn't finish. Is there a way to get the output of ubuntu-bug without a
> GUI running? Where does it put the output? Would that output be useful
> to you (ubuntu-bug while the Dell is in the X-up-but-useless state)?

The ubuntu-bug command is for filing new bugs and needs a GUI. There's
another tool which is called apport-collect which should not need a
GUI and is for uploading information to existing bug reports. The
usage is `apport-collect <bugnr>`. But as I said in the last comment
it might not be necessary since this problem seems to be handled by
bug 406460.